Thumbs up, thumbs down

Published 12:00 am, Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Thumbs up to Kathy Jarombek, the children’s librarian at Perrot Memorial Library in Old Greenwich, who recently earned the Kate McClelland Librarian’s Award for her story-telling ability. Maintaining the interest of young children is a blend of talent and hard work. Jarombek picked up her award at the 37th Annual Connecticut Storytelling Festival & Conference in New London on April 28.

Thumbs up to diving into the new Byram Park pool. Though temperatures are rising, residents will have to stay cool until a signature of occupancy is obtained. Town officials anticipate it will be open early next month. The U-shaped pool includes an area for water aerobics, lanes in which to swim laps and a kiddy pool.

Thumbs up the the appointment of Richard A. Robinson as Connecticut’s chief justice. While we supported the polarizing nomination of Justice Andrew McDonald, we would hate to see Robinson’s rise overlooked. Not only did Robinson serve as counsel for the City of Stamford for many years, he also was the president of the city’s NAACP branch from 1988 until 1990. Now he has made history as the state’s first black chief justice.

Thumbs up to avoiding a strike by caregivers that would have cost Connecticut $1 million a day. On Saturday the state Senate joined the House in approving a new wage pact for the approximately 18,000 members of SEIU 1199, who haven’t had a raise in 10 years on hourly pay barely above minimum wage. Not only do the caregivers perform the important work of caring for people with disabilities, but also the pay structure was unfair considering their public service counterparts earn more and have better benefits. The state has been moving such services to the private sector. With the new agreement, the workers will receive $14.75 an hour by Jan. 1. Half of the $21.5 million cost will be covered by federal Medicaid.

Thumbs down to the discouraging report that so-called “deaths of despair” —those from suicide, alcohol and drugs — jumped some 50 percent nationwide between 2005 and 2016 and increased in every state, including Connecticut. In 2016, the state’s death rate from these causes was 45.3 percent. Just three years earlier, in 2013, the death rate was 32 percent. These were among the unsettling findings of the Commonwealth Fund’s 2018 Scorecard on State Health System Performance. The fund — a private foundation that supports independent research and grants aimed at improving health care — used recently available data to assess every state and Washington, D.C., on more than 40 measures of health care access, quality, efficiency, health outcomes and disparities. Connecticut actually did fairly well, ranking as the ninth-best state for health care access and overall quality.